Category Archives: Opera

Ariadne on Naxos in 1969 at the Opera School

Posted on September 17, 2024 by barczablog

The title of the opera is Ariadne auf Naxos, done as Ariadne on Naxos because it was being sung in English. That’s how Richard Strauss’s opera was presented back in March 1969 at the Opera School of the University of … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

CICM and OBR present Dvořák’s Jacobin

Posted on September 15, 2024 by barczablog

The Canadian Institute for Czech Music (CICM) and Opera by Request (OBR) collaborated to present Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jacobin in a concert performance with orchestra at Jeanne Lamon Hall Friday September 13th. Produced by Professor John Holland of CICM, conducted … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thinking about Richard Strauss’s death in 1949

Posted on August 29, 2024 by barczablog

On September 8, 1949 composer and conductor Richard Strauss died after a long productive life. I think of him as a romantic composer carrying on the stylistic traditions of Richard Wagner. In Salome and Elektra he was the modernist pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

SOLT pedagogy

Posted on July 27, 2024 by barczablog

I attended the La Boheme to open Summer Opera Lyric Theatre’s summer season tonight at the Alumnae Theatre. Guillermo Silva-Marin called it a festival in his pre-show introductory talk. As you can see in the graphic, between now and next … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The lessons of James Morris’s Wotan for this Canadian

Posted on July 1, 2024 by barczablog

It’s Canada Day. I live in Toronto and am a subscriber to the Canadian Opera Company. I was remembering examples I’ve seen south of the border at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes they import talent, bringing in Italians to sing Verdi … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Opera By Request premiere The Seagull

Posted on June 8, 2024 by barczablog

Friday night June 7th I witnessed the Canadian premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s 1974 opera setting Kenward Elmslie’s libretto adapting Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play The Seagull, presented in concert by Opera by Request at the College St United Church. It can … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tafelmusik and Ivars Taurins celebrate Handel

Posted on June 1, 2024 by barczablog

Tafelmusik turned their choral specialist loose for their season-concluding Handel celebration concert. If you have any way of getting to this concert do so, a love-fest centred on Handel and his alter-ego Ivars Taurins. You may know Ivars Taurins for … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Canadian Premiere of Tom Pasatieri’s The Seagull, Friday June 7th: An Interview with Bill Shookhoff

Posted on May 23, 2024 by barczablog

Tom Pasatieri’s opera The Seagull will get it’s Canadian Premiere on June 7th with Opera By Request. I interviewed Bill Shookhoff to find out about it. ~~~~~~~ Barczablog: Describe the works of Pasatieri: what is his style like?  Bill Shookhoff: … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After last performance of Don Pasquale, looking back and ahead plus two anonymous voices

Posted on May 19, 2024 by barczablog

This afternoon we watched the Canadian Opera Company’s closing performance of the Renaud Doucet–André Barbe Don Pasquale at the Four Seasons Centre, bringing their spring season to a boisterous close. The unexpected adjective I’d apply to the colourful production is … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

COC Medea explores truth

Posted on May 6, 2024 by barczablog

Yesterday I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s Sunday matinee of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. The main character may tell a lot of lies but that didn’t stop the audience from cheering her on in one of the darkest operas imaginable, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments